The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to landing of an aircraft, and more particularly to cooperatively determining a safe landing area for an aircraft.
Optionally-piloted vehicles (OPVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can operate without a human pilot using autonomous controls. As OPVs and UAVs become more prevalent, they are being operated in less restricted and controlled areas. When OPVs and UAVs are operated autonomously in flight, they must identify a landing area prior to landing. To account for unpredictable landing area conditions, OPVs and UAVs typically use an image-based sensing system to identify geometric factors that may impede a safe landing. A sensing system can be helpful in identifying potentially safe landing areas in close proximity to a vehicle, but the available data values are typically limited to recent observations based on a flight path of the vehicle. Other potentially safe landing areas which were not observed by the vehicle may be preferable; however, without directly observing other potentially safe landing areas, such areas are not typically considered in making a final landing area determination.